Spare any coins?

Recently my friend and I were sitting having a coffee on Swanston street when a guy wandered up to us and asked us if we could spare any coins. He explained that he was homeless, sleeping in a nearby alley and needing money for food and accommodation. He looked the part too: the epitome of the homeless stereotype. An older guy with a Gandalf beard and ragged, dirty clothes.
We offered to buy the guy a meal and he accepted. My mate and I wandered across the street with him to a 24-hour diner style restaurant and we all got a drink and him a meal. We sat and chatted while he ate and he was a pretty friendly guy. He explained that he had been homeless for about 20 years, spending most of that time in Melbourne. We asked if he had heard of our organisation (Credo Café was only a few hundred metres away from where we sat) but he said he wasn’t familiar with it. This shocked me. Firstly because of the long duration of his homelessness but also the proximity of his sleeping spot to our main office and café.

It really hit home for me that the roughly 100k homeless people in Australia is no small number.

As he finished his meal we said goodnight and off we all went, him to his business and us to ours. As we walked down towards Flinders Street my friend and I chatted about the conversation we’d just had. I couldn’t believe he’d never heard of Urban Seed but my friend commented, “I just wanted to know about his ring.”

“His ring?” I responded, confused. “Yeah he was wearing a wedding ring. He’s been homeless for 20 years and is clearly alone now, so what happened to the girl?”

One hundred thousand homeless around the country and each one has a story but I’ve only had the privilege to hear a few.

Are we going to see homeless people?

One of the things we do at Urban Seed is run city walks where talk about homelessness and the work Urban Seed does.
Something we often get asked is, are we going to ‘see’ homeless people?”  This is always an interesting question.

Firstly how do we know what a homeless person looks like? Secondly if you could always tell what they looked like, would it be a good idea to go and look for them?    

We also regularly get requests to hear from people who are homeless themselves and have them share their stories in person on our walks, which sometimes does happen.

For us this is really tricky territory to navigate.

The power of story to us at Urban Seed is core to who we are. We believe that we can learn more from a story than from facts & figures.  This is because when we hear a story we engage with it and it moves us emotionally.  Hearing a story about someone’s life from the person themselves is truly powerfully.  It has the ability to allow us to get to know the person and understand complex issues more.  Therefore helping to breakdown stereotyping and  judging.

But having said that we also need to be careful how we honour and tell those stories.  Because of the impact and power in a story we need to be careful that we don’t just ‘use’ the person so as to tell a good story.

For us at Urban Seed we exist to honour and be with those have been marginalised and ignored from wider society.  Part of this means we get to hear stories about people lives that are sad, powerful, moving and beautiful.  Graciously many of these people are willing to have their stories shared by us on a walk.  And sometimes they are happy to be there to share their stories in person.  We tread a fine line between allowing those who want to share their story a space to do so, and exploitation of that person for the sake of a good story.  At Urban Seed we want to honour  and repsect the most vulnerable first.  

And so it is for this reason, that more often than not, we do not always have homeless people come on our walks or there to share their own stories.  Rather we advocate on their behalf.

 

In the Public Eye:: Anthony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FPkXDhddAZk
In the Public Eye: personal stories of homelessness and fines

Anthony became homeless in his late 20s. He slept rough and couch surfed for about two years and he got about $3000 in fines for travelling on public transport without a ticket, having his feet on the train seat and possessing an open container of liquor. Anthony now feels hopeful about his future. He is in recovery, has stable housing and is looking forward to returning to work or study.

There are over 22,000 people who are homeless in Victoria. These people are living in temporary accommodation, staying in refuges, sleeping in their cars, paying over $200 per week for a bed in a rooming house, couch surfing and, for 1,092 people, sleeping on the streets.

People who are homeless are (1) more likely to get fines because they are forced to carry out their private lives in public places; and (2) less likely to be able to address the fines through payment or navigating the complex legal system.

The current fines system in Victoria does not address the underlying causes of a person’s offending. Instead it issues financial penalties that people can’t pay and increases the strain they’re already under.

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Guilt Free Shopping…?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jb9naGAiu3k
Ever spent a day shopping, spent lots of money and then walked past a homeless person and felt guilty?

If you shop online for music, electronics etc at Homepage for the Homeless you can donate up 15% from your purchase to youth homelessness via Ladder – a charity run by AFL players.

Step 1: Set ‘Homepage for the Homeless’ as your homepage.
Step 2: Click through a ‘keyhole’ before you shop online.
Step 3: Shop away, and up to 15% of your spend will be donated by the store to help Australia’s homeless – with no extra cost to you.

Ever been conned by a beggar?

Yesterday I bought some pizza slices on my way home from work. I had 3, for $5. Just enough to fill the hole before I get home. As I was just about to attack slice 3, a beggar came up to me in the street, and asked for money. I awkwardly hid my body language of a person about to take a bite of dinner, and smoothly transitioned it into an offer, of my last piece of pizza. Immediately the small silver stubbled man spoke from under his cap that he needed money for a place to stay tonight. Not pizza. Now I didn’t want to give money today. My daily account was a bit short, with only $20 left. Payday was 2 days away. I said no. He replied in disgust “I don’t know how you people can sleep at night… you can give money. you know you can. But you won’t. You just don’t give a shit”. I held back the temptation to inform the man i worked for an org that supported homeless people and instead awkwardly removed my self from the conversation, and continued home munching my pizza. it had gotten cold.

Today, after getting off the tram on my way to work, 15 minutes early, I stopped by the ATM to pull out my $20. Payday was tomorrow, and I was looking forward to my first coffee of the day. On the walk to the cafe, a new beggar, exclaimed a huge hello from half way down the street. He came happily over to me, and in an extremely needy tone, asked for some loose change. I replied that I could give him the coins I would get once I broke my note when I bought my coffee. He said great! and we proceeded to the cafe. A moment later he asked me, could he have $5 seeing as I was breaking a $20? I was caught off guard, and ummed and arred, he pounced on my hesitancy and the next thing I knew I had agreed.
I bought my coffee, recieved $16.50 back, and handed him the $5. He whipped out another $5, all crumpled and dirty. He said, can i give you back these two $5’s and get your $10? This $5 looks so dirty and It makes me look bad.
confused by the pace of his comments, and seeing the way he might be looked down upon with that $5, I passed him the $10 as he reached out to give me his two $5’s. But my hand returned with only one $5 in it… the dirty one. I looked up and he was out the door, with a cheeky grin of success on his face. I exclaimed after him, but there was no catching him… my last words were… “You’re good mate…” he actually thanked me, aware, that he was in fact, quite good.
And I was left standing there. In front of my regular barista, not just $10 poorer, but poorer in my sense of control. He had outwitted me. My pride a bit beat, I proceeded on my day with my last $6.50, off to my free lunch at Credo, most likely followed by another coffee or two, and a pay check at midnight. The thing is I can afford to get ripped off.
Why are we so afraid to be ripped off?
Is it really just our pride?

Have your say :: Student voices

Reflection by Mitch Lovell :: Year 9 :: Bentleigh Secondary College
On friday we went to the city to learn about an organisation called urban seed. The organisation helps homeless people and drug addicts.

They talked about different types of homelesness . I learnt that being homeless doesnt always mean you’re a hobo living out of garbage cans. She explained how they gave out free meals to anyone. They do this so the homeless people could eat if they needed to and it also helps the homeless community socialise with business people they see walk past everyday. They do this because when the business person sees the homeless person (after they have shared a meal together and talked) they dont see him as a hobo, they see him as that guy john they had lunch with the day before.

They also run another program where anyone can come and play laneway cricket. The reason for cricket is not only for homeless and non homeless people to interact; its also so people can have a sense of belonging and to feel that they have achieved something.

I think going to urban seed was a great experience and it taught me alot of stuff i didnt know about homelesness.

In the Youth and Schools team at Urban Seed we like to talk.. and talk and talk.. Mainly because we want to share some of the great stuff we have learned through many years of hanging out with people who are different from us.

Sometimes groups of students want to interview us and ask us questions that relate to stuff they’re learning at school. It could be for a project or as part of their school’s city exposure week.

I met with a group of year 9s today. They wanted to chat about homelessness and what it is like for us to hang out with homeless people so I did my best to answer their questions and I thought you might like to hear a couple of my responses too!

Q. Do you feel self conscious when you’re walking down the street with a homeless person?? Do you feel like people are looking at you funny??

A. Well, that’s a tricky question. Did you know that not all homeless people “look” homeless?? Some my homeless friends would not really stand out in the crowd at all. Just today I had lunch with a guy who has been homeless for the best part of a year. He is living in a refuge right now. You’d never guess he was homeless as he is only 22 and dresses pretty normally. Nice hat, nice shoes, he’s clean etc. But he’s homeless. 

That said, sometimes I do hang out with homeless people who fit the scruffy homeless stereotype and when I do, (to be really honest) sometimes people do stare or give us funny looks. But then I remember that this is how it feels to be different.. to be one of “THEM”. And those feelings of discomfort and awkwardness are for me, a fleeting feeling. But for someone who sleeps rough and/or looks “homeless”, this is what they face every day. 

Q. What are some of the main reasons people end up homeless?

A. Homelessness is often the result of many different factors – some of these are family breakdown, abuse, trauma, disability, addictions, illness and poverty. For the 45% of Australia’s 100,000 + homeless people that are under 25 years of age, domestic violence is the number one cause. 


Q. What are some of the biggest hurdles to getting back on track?

A. I think one of the biggest ones is not having an address. There are many hurdles but the simple fact of not having an address means that people can’t get any government payments (as it’s one of the first questions on the paperwork), can’t get a job (what is written on the top of your resume??… yup! Your address!), and don’t have anywhere to have mail sent so even if they did get a job it would be very difficult to receive correspondence. 


Thanks for the questions guys. I’d love to answer more so if you have any please send them through to ashley.carr@urbanseed.org  

Fact: Homelessness could happen to you!

No one is immune from potentially becoming homeless. Studies have shown that just a few unfortunate events can turn someone’s life around completely. It may be the loss of a partner, an unexpected expense or an eviction at short notice. 

(Source: The Mercy Foundation ‘Myths about homelessness’ fact sheet)